The invention relates to a device for transporting and storing cigarettes, having a storage unit comprising several containers which are arranged one beside the other and are connected fixedly to one another, and having a cigarette conveyor for feeding the cigarettes, in particular, from a cigarette-making machine and conveying away the cigarettes, in particular to a packaging machine, it being possible for the individual containers to be filled or emptied one after the other in a filling station by the cigarette conveyor (16).
The handling of cigarettes, after they have been manufactured and before they are packaged, poses particular problems for the packaging of cigarettes. The cigarette-making machines manufacture cigarettes at a high output of, for example, sixteen thousand cigarettes per minute. The comparatively large number of cigarettes has to be fed to the packaging machine in an expedient manner. In this arrangement, manufacturing-related fluctuations in the output of the cigarette-making machine as well as those of the following packaging machine have to be taken into account. It is thus conventional for storage devices for cigarettes to be placed between said two units. Depending on the fluctuations in output, the cigarettes are conveyed into said store or discharged from the same.
So-called trays which can be filled from their upper side or their underside are known for storing and transporting cigarettes. In order to empty the trays, the upper side of the same is first of all closed by a slat, the trays are tilted through approximately 180.degree. over an emptying station, and the trays are then entered into the emptying station. As a result of this complicated handling of the trays, the size of the storage device, into which several containers are assembled, is restricted.